Not All Good Deeds Get Punished: Upgraded from Y to F on P.S.

This morning, I was scheduled to take the 6:00 am JFK-SFO p.s., which turned out to have been overbooked and oversold. As usual, the GA asked for volunteers who would agree to give up their seats for a $300 voucher and rebooking on the very next p.s., leaving at 6:50 am. Considering that I was in no hurry to get to SFO and that the wait was not going to be that long, the $300 voucher seemed like a real steal, so I volunteered. Since I had been upgraded from Y (E+) to C and I had even managed to select one of the coveted row 9 seats on my original flight, I felt that it was only fair that I tried to get something similar when I was rebooked on the later flight. The GA said that the upgrade to C was available but all row 9 seats were gone. Faking disappointment, I shrewdly requested that I be booked in F since I lost my favorite seat in C for volunteering. The really pleasant GA who was rebooking me just smiled slyly without saying a word. When she was done and reprinted my BP, she had rebooked me in F and told me to use the First-class lounge to wait for my flight! A 2-class upgrade + First-class lounge access + a $300 voucher all for agreeing to wait for 50 min...Is that cool or what? I am even secretly hoping that this will be a gift that keeps on giving and when the miles for the trip post, they will be for flying in F with 50% COS and not for my original Y booking.

Just arrived in SFO and checked into Hilton SF Union Square but I am still thinking: Wow! Gotta do that more often because not all good deeds get punished!

This morning, I was scheduled to take the 6:00 am JFK-SFO p.s., which turned out to have been overbooked and oversold. As usual, the GA asked for volunteers who would agree to give up their seats for a $300 voucher and rebooking on the very next p.s., leaving at 6:50 am. Considering that I was in no hurry to get to SFO and that the wait was not going to be that long, the $300 voucher seemed like a real steal, so I volunteered. Since I had been upgraded from Y (E+) to C and I had even managed to select one of the coveted row 9 seats on my original flight, I felt that it was only fair that I tried to get something similar when I was rebooked on the later flight. The GA said that the upgrade to C was available but all row 9 seats were gone. Faking disappointment, I shrewdly requested that I be booked in F since I lost my favorite seat in C for volunteering. The really pleasant GA who was rebooking me just smiled slyly without saying a word. When she was done and reprinted my BP, she had rebooked me in F and told me to use the First-class lounge to wait for my flight! A 2-class upgrade + First-class lounge access + a $300 voucher all for agreeing to wait for 50 min...Is that cool or what? I am even secretly hoping that this will be a gift that keeps on giving and when the miles for the trip post, they will be for flying in F with 50% COS and not for my original Y booking.

Just arrived in SFO and checked into Hilton SF Union Square but I am still thinking: Wow! Gotta do that more often because not all good deeds get punished!

There must have been a last minute influx of passengers for this flight, which I had booked in June and by August my upgrade had already cleared, suggesting that, based on their historical data for this route, UA did not think they would be able to sell all the premium seats that they apparently wound up selling; they would have held out on the upgrades a bit longer if they had suspected that they'd sell out...

For today headed to SFO it wouldn't surprise me if it was last minute purchases of people headed out to the Apple announcement. Not sure that many of them get to fly paid C, but who knows...

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I hope not. The 6am flight is scheduled to arrive at 9:15am, and on good (workdays) days it would be a challenge to make it from the plane to the theater in San Jose in 45 mins with 101 rush hour traffic. Today it arrived at 9:39am.

I hope not. The 6am flight is scheduled to arrive at 9:15am, and on good (workdays) days it would be a challenge to make it from the plane to the theater in San Jose in 45 mins with 101 rush hour traffic. Today it arrived at 9:39am.

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Maybe one or two flights the night before were oversold / cancelled? It's a chain reaction of compensation though if that's the case.

Were there any people left on the F upgrade list for your flight? This is really cool, but I'm just curious if anyone was denied an upgrade as a result.

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I could not tell you because I did not look (just left the First-class lounge and boarded), but my sense was that the second flight had about "normal" capacity, so that there were probably plenty of upgrades to C or F.

sonoma said:

The 6AM JFK-SFO flight is usually full with connecting passengers for TPAC flights.

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I am one of those who like to take early p.s. flights to connect to flights for PEK, HKG or PVG, but none has ever been oversold, and I have always been upgraded,which I attributed to the fact that it was too early in morning so the competition was low. There was something else going on this morning...

Depending on the connections, I typically take 6:00 AM flights because they have less of a chance of being delayed. Since I am not at a hub, most of the planes are parked at the gate when I get there and we typically leave on time.

Good job on securing an F. Sometimes a smile and feigned sadness at losing a favorite seat can get you far.

Depending on the connections, I typically take 6:00 AM flights because they have less of a chance of being delayed. Since I am not at a hub, most of the planes are parked at the gate when I get there and we typically leave on time.

Good job on securing an F. Sometimes a smile and feigned sadness at losing a favorite seat can get you far.

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It is typically true that early flights depart on time because the plane would generally have arrived overnight, ready for its first trip of the day...

It is typically true that early flights depart on time because the plane would generally have arrived overnight, ready for its first trip of the day...

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That is "typically" true, but I experienced an exception last Friday from SJO-IAH departing at 6:59 AM. Those flights require that I leave my home at 4:15 in order to get across town and still meet the 2 hour window recommended.

I saw the night before that the plane was arriving from EWR, and it was about an hour late. Our flight was delayed by 45 minutes due to awaiting a crew. Since there are no arrivals that early, I figure that the crew flying us to IAH was the same crew that flew in the night before from EWR. I don't know what the FAA regulations state about rest time, but there is no other logical explanation other than the late arrival caused our crew to wait in order to meet that FAA requirement.

It's no doubt different in the USA, and even more so at hub cities, but down here? The crew couldn't have been late unless they were downtown partying too late or arrived too late the night before for the rules. Even knowing it was late, I still had to leave at 4:15 AM as I had my driver scheduled. No way to communicate to him that we wee delayed without waking him up, and I wasn't about to do that to him. Result: More time sitting at the gate in SJO. Which brings up a question: Since Avianca/Taca is now *A, why can't UA make a deal to let us use their club at SJO? There are two decent clubs here, but UA has no affiliation with either. Copa allows entry to the non-Avianca/Taca club, so why can't UA?

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